Where are all the young screeners?
 

Whenever I go through an airport, I notice that the average age of the screeners seems to be somewhere in the late 30s or early 40s. Where are all of the young screeners? Is it just the fact that they can get better jobs elsewhere?

In Philly they seem to be mostly 22-32. In Maui mostly 35-45 and under 4 ft 11 in.

MisterNice

Hmm... I've gone through PHL quite a bit this year and I didn't notice them being younger. Yeah, come to think of it they are. I think I was thrown by their attitudes.

It's a stressful job... they look older than they are. :)

You can see the open TSA screener positions at https://tsacareers.recruitsoft.com/ The qualifications are pretty much what you'd expect.

Required (based upon brief inspection of the job descriptions):
- have to be a US Citizen/National
- High school grad/GED
- know English
- physically fit
- > one year security/screener/x-ray tech work experience
- pass a simple background check
- can't have defaulted on more than $5k in debt, have past-due taxes or child-support payments

That's a pretty low threshold.

This is one of those damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't threads. If it was a matter of young screeners being seen at the checkpoint, then the OP would ask: why is screening left in the hands of kids? Why is there age discrimination, etc.

How fickle.

Well, despite what you think, I don't have an agenda. I just notice that older screeners are more common. I was wondering why.

At the small airport I work at the screeners are all ages, youngest is 21 and oldest is 72. I know that the majority have degrees and many are retired military and police, state and local. Four were teachers in the public school system, this job pays better and the benefits are great. The requirements were not hard but the test you had to take weeded out thousands of applicants. The training and testing after weeded out many more. The screeners are tested each year for recertification. More stress than difficult from what I have observed. We really have a great group and they were one of the only southeast airports to get 100% in the customer survey taken at the airport. The airport is very happy with them.

It's actually a little lower than indicated in ralfp's post.

The requirement is a high school diploma, GED or equivalent OR one year of full-time work experience in security work, aviation screener work, or x-ray technician work.

Granted, many screeners greatly exceed these minimum requirements - but the point is that perhaps ALL of the screeners ought to exceed these bare minimums.

Of course someone will probably vehemently disagree with such a reasonable viewpoint.

Sad that the TSA job pays better than being a teacher in Florida. At any rate I would never want to go back to the private screeners who often did not speak English (even when they thought they were speaking English). Those standards were very low. I would rather keep the professionals. It was all just for show before 9/11.

The TSA is using the same equipment that the private screeners used pre-9/11.

The list of prohibited items changed, something that could have been done while security was privatized.

So, we're paying $5+ billion a year to understand just want the checkpoint screener says?

How presumptuous.

Older people tend to be more patriotic.

Not to pounce on the TSA, but I see PLENTY of non-physically fit TSAers. Both in the airport and the occasion I catch the early early morning SkyRide into the airport.

If someone wnats to argue a fair representation of society, that's fine. But we have discussed in many threads before how the TSA is the lead government agency on OTJ injuries.

I'm not saying that being non-physically fit automatically translates into OTJ injuries, fit folks get injured too (seen it once happen at IAD Int'l connections).

But when I see those TSAers on SkyRide wearing the burgundy sweaters (baggage inspectors) that need to wear something above an XL size, that's concerning to me when it comes to the job requirements.

Well it's not like they really need to chase a bag and then tackle it to the ground? Checked baggage is easy to catch! Besides we carbo-Americans need to work somewhere. :p

But my point stands. The TSA folks are a lot better than what we had before. Better trained, more professional but still not perfect.